Saturday, December 29, 2012

Sweetness

My older son, Jeffrey is home for the holidays. He flew in from Cold Lake, Alberta on the 11th and will be here until a few days after New Year's. I'm a happy mom with both of my boys around.

Christmas Eve was spent with Frank's beautiful family. My sons drove out to be with us at Frank's sister's home. It was a lovely evening and the first time my younger son, Alex got together with any of Frank's relatives. Jeffrey had met Frank's sister and his oldest son once before when we were on a raccoon run! Thank you, Theresa and Evan for including my boys and me.

On Christmas Day, we had dinner with cousins closer to home. Amanda and Collin belong to my sons' dad, Don's side of the family, and they graciously include me every year despite Don and I having gone our separate (but friendly) ways years ago. Don and his girlfriend, Linda stopped by my place for a hurried gift exchange with our sons before heading out to the family dinner.

Patience is bitter, but it bears sweet fruit. ~ Turkish Proverb

The table was decorated in that festive way that our hosts do so well. Many of you commented on how lovely the Christmas tree was in the previous post. The first tree belongs to Frank and was decorated by his sons, this year. The tree at the end of the post belonged to Collin and Amanda a couple of years back.

Gratitude is the sweetest thing in a seeker's life- in all human life. If there is gratitude in your heart, then there will be tremendous sweetness in your eyes. ~ Sri Chinmoy

This is my son, Jeffrey. Since the Air Force got a hold of him, I just don't see him enough. I'm very grateful for the time I have with him this holiday season.

When you came my way. You brightened every day. With your sweet smile. ~ Sade

My boy, Alex is a tough (not really) metal rocker when he's not busy setting up venues for various performances. But when he needs to, he can clean up pretty well.

It's difficult to tell my two guys apart, isn't it? Ha!

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books (or iPhones).~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This is Elliot, aged nine and the oldest of three kidlets. He spent much of the evening engrossed in a game on Alex's phone.

Nothing but sweetness can remain when hearts are full of their own sweetness. ~ William Butler Yeats

The middle child is six-year-old Lily, aka Hello Kitty. She's every bit as sweet and bright as that smile reveals.

Sometimes I'm so sweet even I can't stand it. ~ Julie Andrews

This little two-year-old angel is Maeve. One only needs to watch her for a couple of moments to know that there's a lot going on behind those darling eyes.

Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words. ~ Plautus

The wine was flowing before, during and after the meal.

Chocolate is not cheating! After a salty meal, you need a little bit of sweet. This is living, not cheating. ~ Ali Landry

Dinner was delicious as it always is, and if there was an ounce of room left in our bellies, it was filled with several kinds of amazing desserts.

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter. ~ John Keats

After dinner, my son played our host's guitar and I couldn't help but notice the tree lights reflecting in its shiny surface.

It was a wonderful evening with music and dance (Highland dancing by Lily and a fine imitation by baby Maeve), laughter and warmth. It sure is nice to be with little ones during the holidays. And especially nice to be with family - my sons - and my two extended families through Frank and Don.

Sweet, indeed.

I wish all my dear blogging friends a wonderful, safe and Happy New Year!

66 comments:

I am not surprised you've maintained a good relationship with your sons' dad. It sounds like you've had some great celebrations. What a beautiful table decoration and I love the one of the guitar! Oh, I love them all. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Hilary!

Thanks so much for sharing your bright and beautiful Christmas with us. So happy to see that both sons were home and that you embraced and were embraced by all who are dear to you. The orange/clove photo with the colourful lights is magical, along with the sweet faces of the children of all ages :) Happy New Year to you all!

Wonderful pictures that capture a magical time together with family. I love the orange with cloves in it, I could almost smell it from here. Happy holidays, Hilary. I am blessed to be able to share in your happiness. :-)

Those little children look so sweet, I can see how you enjoyed their company.But your 2 sons...WOW! They're fine young men Hilary!Love your first photo, the colours and light are lovely and festive.Glad you had a good celebration, I can feel the afterglow in this post.

That first picture just melts me. It is just perfect. I love to see how different the personalities and interests are in people from the same family. You know what is funny? My brother started out as a rocker with long hair, then he joined the army and looked all straight laced, and now he is somewhere in between and very artistic (tattoo artist). Kinda funny. ;)ANYWAY, sounds like a wonderful Christmas. I'm glad you got to spend time with your handsome sons and the rest of your family.

Sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas. I'm so glad that you were able to spend time with both of your boys, who by the way are so goodlooking......both of them. Love the shot of the guitar too. Happy New Year, Hilary.

Such a beautiful post! I so enjoyed "meeting" some of the special people in your life. Your sons might be somewhat (heh) different in appearance, but both possess the same joy in their expressions. I know you are one proud, happy mama. The Christmas light bokeh is fantastic, and reminds me that I need to get a picture of mine before our tree gets put away. Wishing you a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year!!

Oh what a delightful post Hilary.Family, that's what it's all about.You have such handsome men in your life and those little cutie pies would steal anyone's heart.My Granddaughters have an exchange student from Japan living with them for 2 weeks. It was so much fun having Kaito over for Christmas Day.Lots of laughter as we all murdered the language. She (Kaito) is 15 and just as sweet as can be.Unfortunately I can't post pictures of my girls on this blog, so you will have to take my word that they are all beautiful and I love them all.Wishing you a very Happy and prosperous New Year.Sue

Hello Hilary. I've been so busy lately I've not been looking at my blogger dashboard and I'm just catching up now. Last I read this your boy was still in nearby RMC. Cold Lake is a long ways away so I'm glad he got home for the holidays. Your boys definitely have different styles and different lifes but they have the same eyes...and both look very happy. I was lucky enough to have both my children here for the holidays although Hayley had to work until 2 on Christmas eve so it was a rush to get her and her sweet dog bogey and return her on boxing day...I'm sure the recent weather will produce many beautiful shots from your camera...happy new year!

Happy New Year Hilary! Love all the pics...everyone is magical and your boys are very handsome and I did laugh at your comment about how they look alike. I'm always amazed how my 4 sons..who all came from the same Mom and Dad, can be so different. But isn't that what makes each of us special? Love the guitar shot. My #3 son plays a mean guitar and I'll have to show him this shot. Those little girls are very lovely and they just say "Christmas" with their smiles. Glad you had a great time with family. That's what it's all about in my book!

I laughed at Elliot--we have a few young lost in technology kiddos here as well. Actually this week, I wish all of them were more engaged in tech so that I would not have had to pull munchkins around the snow in sleds for hours and hours (I apologize for whining about being sore).

I adore that you were surrounded by so many people that you love and that love you, and I have to say that I'm partial to that shot where the Christmas lights are reflecting in the guitar. Very cool. Happy New Year!

That thing that Birdie wrote is so clever!Happy 2013 to you Hilary, happy times, good health, good cheer, prosperity and creativity.... the best of everything! maybe you'll pass through Stouffville one of these days!

What a warm and lovely post – you have a great family and isn’t it nice to have them near you during the holidays. We were with our 3 little grandsons at Christmas and we enjoyed that a lot. I hope 2013 will bring you many happy moments and much fun.

No surprise that your boys turned out to be such wonderful young men -- you are a living example of how to treat others.

I confess that my favorite shot is of the guitar. I wish I had taken lessons (I'm rather poorly self-taught and rarely play now). I have a dream of someday visiting you and listening to your son Alex play music.

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